A MAN has spoken of his relief after a neighbour who stole £60,000 from him to fund her lavish lifestyle was locked up.

William Gray, 57, was duped into giving financial adviser Janice Griffiths his life savings to invest in offshore investments worth millions.

In reality, she used the cash to buy expensive cars, luxury holidays, to rent a home she couldn't afford and to save her failing business.

Griffiths, 40, was jailed on Friday for two-and-a-half years at Chester Crown Court.

Mr Gray, a former retail manager and now a part-time football coach, said he had mixed emotions - happy that 'justice had been done' but sad because of the hurt Griffiths had caused.

He said: 'It makes me feel physically sick. It doesn't look like we will get back our money that we have been saving for the last 25 years. It's changed our whole life - she has pulled the rug from underneath us.'

Mr Gray and his wife, Phavadi, 58, became friends with Griffiths and her husband when both couples moved into The Courtyard at Gorstage in 1999. The Grays had money to invest and Griffiths was a financial adviser.

He said: 'We even went on holiday with them while all this was going on. But none of the money was invested and it all went to fund her lifestyle.

'This was someone whom we trusted - but there she was driving a Porsche Boxter, Land Rover and Mercedes, she had a babysitter for her two dogs, was going on cruises and wearing Rolex watches... now we know who was paying for it.'

Their relationship turned sour when Mr Gray told Griffiths to withdraw the money in 2003. Mr Gray said: 'We went through three months of hell trying to withdraw the money - that was probably the most horrendous time.

'She was delaying everything, making excuses about the accountant, and staff telling us she wasn't in the office. Then we went to her office and she was swearing at us, being very abusive to me and my wife - that was the last time we saw her.

'You hear of people being duped into things and think it'll never happen to you. If she had taken a gamble on it and lost we would have been happier, but the way this was done was despicable.'

'Mean' trickster led life of luxury

A 'HIGH-FLYING' financial advisor has been jailed for stealing from her clients to fund her lavish lifestyle.

Janice Griffiths, formerly of The Courtyard in Gorstage, received £60,000 from neighbour William Gray which she promised to invest in an offshore investment syndicate worth millions of pounds.

Griffiths, 40, was jailed for twoand-a-half years at Chester Crown Court on Friday after admitting two counts of theft and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Griffiths, now of Billinge near Wigan, used money from a number of clients to save her failing business and support a lifestyle driving expensive sports cars and renting a home she could not afford.

Gerald Baxter, prosecuting, said: 'She told them she was investing on behalf of a private syndicate of offshore investors.

'She said that if they didn't want to invest there were plenty of people who would. She said she would not put their money at risk and had her own money in the scheme.

'They believed her totally and thought this was too good an opportunity to miss.'

Mr Gray invested £60,000 between 2001 and 2003, while another victim, Alan Dingsdale paid Griffiths £35,000 between 1997 and 2004.

They were told their money was going into an investment bond which had an interest rate of 15%. But Griffiths instead put it into her own Warrington-based business.

Hugh Barton, defending, said his client had been an 'extremely successful businesswoman' in the past, earning up to £80,000-a-year. But things started to go wrong after

she became ill in the late 1990s and had to undergo a hysterectomy.

He added: 'Through skill and hard work, she was very successful and she has thrown all that away. Her reputation has been completely destroyed by her actions.'

The court heard that Griffiths had also been convicted of a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice following an earlier trial.

Judge Nicholas Woodward described her offences as 'particularly mean'.

He said: 'They trusted you with their savings which otherwise could have provided some kind of cushion against the harsh financial hardships of life which sadly you took away.

'You used that money to enjoy a style of life you could not afford.' Griffiths faces a proceeds of crime hearing on August 25.